Box Score 1 Wingate, NC – Erskine opened their 2012 campaign splitting a doubleheader with South Atlantic Conference member Wingate University in non-conference softball action at the Wingate University Softball Complex.  Erskine dropped the first game 9-3 but bounced back to win the second game 6-3.

In game one, freshman Ericka McCarson (Travelers Rest, SC, Travelers Rest High School) began her collegiate career in grand fashion by leading off of the game with a home run over the right field fence in her first at-bat.  The Fleet added another run in the top of first on a double by junior Bailey Thornton (Pauline, SC, Dorman High School) while Larissa Shannon (Newberry, SC, Newberry High School) added the Fleet’s final run with solo blast in the third for her first home run of the season.  Shannon finished 2 for 3 with two runs scored and one run batted in while sophomore Whitney Brown (West Columbia, SC, Airport High School) also went 2 for 3, both singles.

Wingate roughed up Erskine ace Kelsey Spurrier (Charlotte, NC, Butler High School).  The Bulldogs scored 9 runs, 5 earned, on 11 hits.  The big blow came in the bottom of the third.  Trailing 3-2 after Shannon’s home run, Wingate scored five runs, only one earned, to take a 7-3 lead.  Ashley Brown relieved Miranda Paul and tossed four shutout innings allowing just two hits while striking out five to earn her first win of the season.

The Flying Fleet bounced to win the nightcap 6-3 and earn the split in the doubleheader.  Erskine again got on the board in the first inning.  Following a bunt single by speedy freshmanLindsay Waters (Simpsonville, SC, James L. Mann High School), Shannon pounded the ball into the right center gap scoring Waters.  The Fleet added two more runs in the fourth and fifth innings.  Thornton smacked Erskine’s third big fly of the day in the fourth inning, a two-run shot over the left field wall, and the Fleet got two additional runs in the fifth after Shannon drew a bases loaded walk followed by an RBI single by junior centerfielder Morgan Purcell (Duncan, SC, Byrnes High School).  In the seventh, McCarson started the inning with a double and sophomore Ashlyn Hicks (Caycee, SC, Brookland-Cayce High School) drove her home with an RBI single.

After scoring nine runs in the first game, the Bulldogs were limited to just three runs in the second game despite recording twelve hits.  Wingate scored two runs in the third inning.  After surrendering a lead-off walk followed by two singles, Erskine standout pitcher Heather Richey (Abbeville, SC, Abbeville High School) induced a inning-ending double-play to limit the damage.  In the bottom of the sixth inning, Erskine again pitched their way out of trouble.  Katherine Mulzer (Donalds, SC, Dixie High School), on in relief of Richey, allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases but got the next three batters to hit an infield pop fly, a sacrifice fly and a ground ball to limit the Bulldogs to the lone tally.  Richey tossed four innings giving up two runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking just one.  Mulzer picked up the save pitching the final three innings yielding the one run on five hits.  She struck out one and did not surrender a walk.

Erskine hosts another South Atlantic Conference powerhouse this Saturday when Carson-Newman College visits the friendly-confides of the Erskine Softball Complex.  The first game starts at 1:00 p.m. with the second game beginning approximately twenty minutes after the completion of the first game.

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score